Dentist leaves needle in patient’s mouth, made to pay for mental torture

Dentist leaves needle in patient’s mouth, made to pay for mental torture
NIRMALA GANAPATHY

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25: Need to go to the dentist for the toothache that’s been troubling you for a while? Well be scared, be very scared.Seema Jhanb went to the dentist with a cavity and came away with a needle stuck in her mouth. Her ordeal started when she visited dental surgeon Kapil Khullar in his Naraina clinic with pain in her lower jaw.

The treatment was conducted over four-five sittings but the pain refused to go away. So Jhanb decided to consult another dental surgeon. The painful verdict: A needle in place of a cavity.

So, she decided to file a case against the doctor in the consumer forum at Sheikh Sarai. Jhanb told the forum that she went to the doctor and he did root canal treatment. He had in fact pulled out the wrong tooth.

The forum served a notice on the dentist alleging that she had suffered mental and physical torture and incurred heavy financial loss, which included the cost of treatment for extraction of the needle and the cost of artificial bridge crown. All amounting to Rs two lakh.

In his defence, the dentist told the forum that the patient had come to him complaining of pain on both sides of the lower jaw. He said it wasn’t true that he had extracted the wrong tooth. He was doing root canal on a left molar, he said, when he noticed cavities on the other side of the jaw. He decided to do root canal on both sides of the jaw.

He further said that the treatment was done over 4-5 sittings and Jhanb never complained during this period. About the needle left behind in Jhanb’s mouth, the dentist said that a file, used for cleaning and shaping the root canal, had broken in the mouth and that he had told Jhanb about it.

The district consumer redressal forum president N.K. Jain said that the allegation of the wrong tooth being treated was ‘‘false as it has not been supported by the complainant’’.About the file being found in Jhanb’s mouth, the president said that the contention of the doctor that he had informed his patient was ‘‘not wholly true’’.

The consumer court has ordered Khullar to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for the ‘‘mental and physical pain suffered’’ of Jhanb. He also has to pay Rs 5,000 for the cost of the proceedings and refund of the fees charged at 12 per cent per annum.